Heart Strings
by Jirubee
Summary: A perturbed Kagome sits at home reflecting on a fight, as she misses a certain someone, only to find him human and sleeping in his favorite tree. Without resolve, there is no way that she will come 'home' but sometimes apologies are more meaningful when shown, instead of spoken. WAFF. Language.


AN: Here's a sweet little one shot for you guys, since I've been writing such downers lately. I hope you all enjoy it. I made mentions of Christmas just to get the spirit going. Happy Holidays!

`Jiru

The unbridled blurs of Tokyo streaked across the night like stars falling from their homes. It was calm, quiet in comparision to the bustling of the daylight hours. In turn, it left Kagome longingly staring from her perch at her window sill.

A ferris wheel's spherical crown flittered by as music drifted from one of the many downtown festivals. She'd lost interest in studying, and chosen to focus her attention on the blackening quilt pouring over the treetops and steady turns of the earth.

InuYasha had scorned her again, leaving her heart in distress as she pressed her clammy palms along her eyes. There wasn't much to say about the ordeal - other than the fact that he had seen her naked, made a smartass comment about her small breasts and ended up buried in a landfill of red and white.

Miroku-sama had been daft in his escape, chucking madly as his sake stupor wore him rather than he it. Sango-chan was livid, and more upset with the way the hanyou had spoken to her surrogate sibling. They both stood nude, covering themselves with their arms, as they shouted slanderous accusations at the poor halfling.

Injurious as always, InuYasha spat a few curses before the miko borrowed Kirara for a spell. When the nekomata returned without a rider, he knew that she had departed for her unwordly home without so much as a goodbye.

Which, as the girl brushed her fingers through the stiff curls in his hair, she let out a sigh. There were times she questioned her love, her loyalty to the man. Much like tonight where her lonesome flannel and knitted quilt kept her safe from the impertinent cold, instead of his bristly hair and finely woven robes.

It had been two arduous days of waiting.

InuYasha always came for her upon the end of the third day; any longer and he was obviously still distraught and hanging on to his ire for her subterfuge. As noble as he was, the hanyou still held on to older ideas and historically accurate portrayals of men and women's roles.

She couldn't blame him for it. And, in most senses, it was still very truthful in her society. She was looked at as a wily woman which no man could capture. She was caged by many hands, yet none could hold her for long.

Misgivings, or not, the miko longed for one set of hands to hold her tight and sew the space between his clawed fingers closed. Closing her gray eyes, the girl pinched the bridge of her nose as the permanent draught from her window kissed at her collar.

It was a chilly winter. No snow had fallen and she had hoped for some magic in her era to look forward to. Being at home felt jaded. The world of metal and skyscrappers and neons seemed unjust. There was concrete pressed along the greenery of the countryside she had grown to know and love as Musashi became a figment of her imagination.

She wasn't saddened, truly. She felt for it. She lived for reasons beyond her, and in that, it gave her a breath that no one else could steal. Feeling sorry for something that she couldn't change was too overwhelming in light of everything.

Kagome was young. She was bearing the weight of so many lives and so many hearts and their devotions and love...

Nights like this made her realize how lucky she was. This burden had brought her a world in which she could live freely and fight for her own honor. InuYasha never admitted that he did the same. She could see it in his tawny eyes and the way his jaw tighened when he had defeated some predator. His admittance had never been needed.

It was all body language. He cared for her in an odd way. What way, she still didn't fully know. A melancholy smile played along her lips as she removed herself from the window. Out of habit, out of hope _-_ the girl parted the mouth of her window enough for _his _hand to slip under.

_Should he come, of course_...

Eagerly, the girl slammed her mathematics book closed and swore in its name that she would pass the damn test. Sure enough, she knew she wouldn't. It had been a dream that she could deduce the the meaning of the numbers, but that was a dream at best.

Quietly, she scurried past her brother's room - thudding on sock clad feet down the matte stairs.

Her mother was polishing the last bit of the kichen's old wooden floor. She was careful to tip-toe along the dry spots on her way to the living-room where Jii-chan sat asleep. His mouth hung open, ready to catch a fly if it flew in as his paper hung loosely on his lap. A pair of wire glasses laid haphazardly along the rug and she aptly picked them up.

The night was relatively boring. Her mother had put up their painted white Christmas tree and clear lights _-_ _ which Jii-chan clearly disliked. _

The girl fingered the simulated pine and prodded, much like Buyo, at the glassy red ornaments. The tree reminded her of InuYasha and it made her cheeks flush. How childish a notion to find a tree in the semblance of someone you loved - _cared about_.

A glower soured her pallid face as she flipped off the television. There was something she felt like she was forgetting. All of this time stewing over her tift had made her forget that there was no moon illuminating the night. Part of her panicked, as she grabbed her mauve peacoat from the racket.

She hadn't given much thought to running in the cold bare foot, as she had done it many times and felt a spike of magic in the air. Ume knitted her brows as she heard the door slam shut, and merely rolled her eyes. Kagome was more like the wind than Kagura, sometimes... Or, so her mother had figured from the stories she'd heard.

Outside, the flagstone was slippery with icy indentions filling in the cracks of the morter. The wind was arctic, biting her nose and lungs with an abrupt ferocity. Sure enough, as she rounded the lumbering pole belonging to the floodlight, she looked up at the branches of the Goshiboku.

Narrowing her eyes, she found the faintest hint of red painted along the wiry thrush. He had probably been hiding there the past couple of days. With a sigh, she exhaled a ghostly mist into the pale white light pinning her in place. Her feet were numbed and her fingers felt like rusted metal as she tried to cup her mouth.

She knew damn well that he could see her. He knew that he had been caught, but he was just going to sit in the cold and complain to himself instead of coming down. Rolling her eyes, she brushed a hand through her hair and grabbed Jii-chan's broom from the side of the house.

A moment later, she traipsed over the fine gate that surrounded the Time Tree and skirted along the base. The roots were lumbering, winding like serpents as she climbed upon them. The broom held her balance as she gripped to the slick, dewy bark. "_InuYasha_!" She cried softly, trying not to slip.

The boy in the branches looked down and glowered - not that she could _see _it, anyway.

"You're going to get sick!" She blanched, huffing and puffing like a wolf after a rabbit. "You need to come down. I don't care if you're still mad at me. I thought you were here, and I guess I was right. Suck it up and let me run you a bath and feed you, or something." Kagome continued. If there was anything to get him down from his crow's nest, it was food.

Sure enough, the boy began his nimble descent down the spine of the tree. It wasn't as graceful as usual, but he took each level with a careful step and grip. The miko's breath caught in her chest, pressing her lungs against her ribs as she watched him jump down the last few rungs.

The sound of his ankles and feet popping as they made contact with the ground made her stomach drop. It was a disgustingly cruel joke of his. No matter his state, he always tested her boundaries. This was one of the few times that she'd seen him as a human, and felt her cheeks burn with a rekindled flush.

"Looks like you're the idiot that's going to get sick. You can't be coming outside in this kind of cold without being prepared. Keh." InuYasha quipped, not apolozing in the slighest. His long arms crossed over his chest and his dark hair tumbled down his back like spilled ink.

Kagome didn't dare look him in the eye as she played dumbly with the knit buttons on her coat. This was awkward to say the very least and her pores felt like they had been ignited by kerosene. "Nice to know that you've been camping outside of my window like a creep." She replied soundly, voice wavering under control of her nerves.

"I didn't plan on staying. I got stuck here. Ain't nothing to get excited about." He rumbled, clearing his throat. He shuddered at the breeze rustling through the small thicket of trees and relented to walking away.

The miko furrowed her brows and followed after him, clenching her fists. He just barreled into her home - _using the door this time_. By the time Kagome had made it in, he was already plopped down at the table, leaving behind muddy footprints on her mother's clean floor.

She'd barely had time to enjoy the thawing hands of the heater, or take off her coat before a plate of leftovers was heated on the stove and shoved in front of his flushed face. In the yellow light of the kitchen, Ume hummed as she finished her duties and knelt down to paper-towel clean the floor. "You know, Kagome, you could have told me he was coming and I would have made something special."

"I didn't know he was going to be staying." She said between her teeth, taking a seat across from him. A smirk curled at his lip as he inhaled his bowl of soup and rice. He was challenging her and she never liked when he did.

It was almost pointing out that her mother would most always side with _him_. "You always know when I'm around, apparently. You must not be as good with your senses as you said." He bit sarcastically, trying his best to keep a playful smile from erupting.

Kagome was flustered, quirking her brows in distaste as she nibbled on her own morsel of food. Her mother had went to the trouble of making a pastry plate earlier in the evening, and she merrily indulged.

"I've never seen you like this, InuYasha." Ume interjected, washing her hands as she tired. "Does this happen often?"

Guzzling down a cup of tea, he nodded slightly, meeting Kagome's long enough to make her squirm. "Once every lunar cycle." He said as a matter of factly. Higurashi-san seemed to be mulling it over as she walked over and kissed the top of his head.

"You look nice, either way. Isn't that right, Kagome?" She smiled, squeezing the boy's shoulder compassionately as she breezed by. Her wake left her daughter's mouth hanging ajar, and utterly stolen of words she could have used to vocalize her distress.

Once Ume was gone, Kagome was left alone with the boy. Her eyes never raised from the sweet in her hand as she shrouded her small frame with a blanket of hair. She never would admit how much she liked him human. She liked him either way, but this was special. There was something attractive about how innocent he looked without all of his claws, and feral eyes.

InuYasha looked around twenty, dark eyed and cheeks as red as apples. He was still fairer than most in either state. This one was just the one he couldn't control. Human body, youkai body... they made him whole. That's what mattered to her.

Once all of the pins and needles of her nerves had sewn a steady line, she cleared her throat and finally looked at him. He was playing a game with Buyo, swatting at his hands as he dragged around a piece of loosing string from his haori.

Kagome had never met anyone so amused by string. "So," She inhaled, tapping her fingers on the edge of the lacquered table. "What should we do now?"

InuYasha shrugged his shoulders, tossing the string away as Buyo skirted across the floor to catch it. "What is there to do?"

Kagome furrowed her brows and looked at the clock. "It seems like nothing at this hour. I can teach you how to knit, that's about it. It's actually about as bad as my aim, so you probably wouldn't learn much." She laughed, biting her lip as she looked at her fingers.

InuYasha peered down at her mouth and felt a twinge nervousness grip at his stomach. He swallowed hard, awkwardly wrinkling his nose. There were things that he loved, and then there was Kagome. He denied it with every fiber of his being, but there was only so far he could run before it caught up with him.

This little back and forth and innocent charade was becoming the beast on his back. If she only knew that just by biting her lip, or ignoring the mean comments - _like that ever happened__ -_or silently forgiving him without him having to apologize, she was giving in.

The boy blew a breath into his dark hair as he inspected Jii-chan's body all curled beneath an afghan. He must have been out for the night by the way he was snoring. Higurashi-san was surely in bed and Sota was most likely playing those _video games_. It just left him to deal with her and these _feelings_ he hated feeling when he was human.

It was strange to be there like that. It had been his own fault for falling asleep watching the girl doing her homework, and sleeping a little _too _long. His calloused hands brushed across his cheek as he waited for Kagome to say something.

She looked deep in thought, as she racked her brain for something to say. She enjoyed talking to the man and loved his company, most of the time, but it was hard to think around him. Maybe it was the way her heart beat out any other sound in her ears?

The creaking of the floorboards and the stove kicking out heat were all a part of the melody as she stared across the table, arms folded in her lap. "I'm glad that you're safe with me." She breathed, hoping to not come off too forward.

The look on his face was obviously taken-a-back and he scoffed as he turned up his sprite like nose. "Keh, you would like to think that I'm safe here. There's still a lot of danger here, and I know that you lie about not being in trouble when you come back."

Kagome rolled her eyes and shoved herself away from the table, shucking her coat on the floor. "You are so full of it. The only reason you came back was to see if I was still mad enough _not _to come back and do your dirty work." She said sharply, trudging across the living room.

InuYasha huffed as he jumped up after her. She had parted the door, inviting the winter air to make residence inside of her warm home. "Why the hell is that the first thing that you always think?" He said brashly, grabbing her hand as it rested on the doorknob.

Her gray eyes shot up, meeting his in a gridlock of emotion. "What else am I supposed to think, InuYasha?" She asked, tilting her head until both of her eyes were clear with the message.

The boy clenched his jaw, curtly pinching his brows in anger. "You are too fucking important to me to just run off without any kind of say so. What if you hadn't have made it back here and died, or something just because you were pissed off?" He asked, not realizing how much error his trembling voice caused.

Kagome didn't catch his words in the heat of the moment and stormed outside into the cold. "I'm not in any kind of mood for you to try to reason with me right now. I've been trying to be nice, holding all of this in and it's not working, anymore." She yelped, pulling at the ends of her long hair as she stood in the courtyard; breath as white as the flakes of snow that had started falling some time before. "I am still so mad at you that it may be a week before I even come back."

She couldn't even enjoy the snow! He was such an asshole.

InuYasha smiled crudely, biting the corner of his lip as his jaw slid to the side. "You," He pointed a clawless finger at her as he inched closer. "You are being too sensitive about the shit that I say."

"Oh, so, being upset about you saying nasty things about my body - _that I'm alread insecure about __- - _is okay?" She blanched, flailing her arms around as she gestured to her breasts and her scrawny legs. "I'm not as beautiful as Kikyo. I'm not as well endowed as Sango, or as statuesque."

"I never-"

"I'm compared to everyone else, but why can I not just feel like there is nothing wrong with _me_?" Kagome yelled, eyes glistening with salty films. They glimmered in the low excess of light from the house and it made InuYasha flinch. "I'm not anything special. I was happy with me until I started having to deal with you and every other person that started comparing me to everyone else. The only, _the only_, person that has ever loved me for me as _Hojo_-_kun_."

The boy blindly began shrugging off his nezumi-hi and bore holes into her as she flapped around like an imbecile. He wanted to say something, but she kept on and on and on without so much as listening to a damn thing he had to say. Maybe it was the fact that he was human, but his heart bled for her. How dare she say those things when the same had been done to him.

"And," Kagome said with a snivel, "Before you even start about killing him, I don't love him. I never will love him. I don't want him and I won't ever want him because I want _you_." Her hands flew to her chapped lips, trying futily to capture the words she released.

Her cheeks were dark, bloodied by her own doing as InuYasha stood silent. He swallowed, looking at the fabric in his hands. He was stoic, poised as he walked up to her fearful being and laced his haori around her shoulders. There was another moment of silence that passed as snow collected in the blackness of their hair.

Their breathing was matched with white plumes as InuYasha still clung to the sleeves, debating whether or not to let go. Kagome felt sick, completely lost at her disapproving admittance.

"I'm sorry." The miko rasped, curling her lashes downward. A few tears followed the worried lines to her lips as the man steeled himself. He pulled the sleeves of his haori, pulling her close in one swift motion, pressing his lips against hers.

The girl gasped as pressed into her, knocking her cautiously to the drown. A curtain of black hung around them as he nipped and tasted her. Kagome was blinded and merely absolved to his request, never knowing if there would be another opportunity.

Her fingers burned and her limbs were electric as she felt his hands wind into her hair. He was sweet, abrasive, so gentle all the same. She elicited a moan into his mouth, which he stole graciously. He could have her if he wanted, and he did in a way. He didn't own her, for she owned him in a way that he wouldn't fathom.

His apologies were weak, but this linger feeling of warm adhered to his lip, gave him more strength than any of his youkai blood. Kagome, in all form, was the life that was worth living and the freedom he so sought.


End file.
